Method for reforming rails



Dec- 22, 1942- G. L. JONES ETAL METHOD FOR REFORMING RAILS Filed June28, 1959 INVENTORS 65086! (3727? JD/YES OVA/M5523. MED! ATTORNEYPatented Dec. 22, 1942 2,305,711 I METHOD FOR REFORMING RAILS GeorgeLester Jones, Garden City, N. Y., and Charles B. Roede, Ridgefield, N.J., assignors to Sperry Products, Inc., Hoboken, N. J., a corporation ofNew York Application June 28, 1939, Serial No. 281,598

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of reforming battered rail portions,especially the battered ends of rail joints in track. It is well knownthat the passage of heavy loads over the rails causes the tread portionsof .the rails to receive more wear and tear at the joints than at otherpoints throughout the raillength, so that there is a marked depressionin the rail ends at the joints. Heretofore such rails have been removedfrom track as defective, and more recently these rail ends have beenbuilt up by welding additional metal to the ends or by heating the railends and hammering them to build up the treads. The welding ofadditional metal on the rail ends has been found unsatisfactory due toseparation of the metal within a relatively short service period, andthe method of heating and hammering has been slow and unsatisfactory.Therefore there have been devised machines whereby the rail ends, afterheating may be quickly raised. Such a machine, for instance, isillustrated in the patent to Chas, A. Miller, No. 2,135,107, grantedNovember 1, 1938. Another such machine is illustrated in the patent toHarcourt C. Drake, No. 2,144,916 granted January 24, 1939. In operation,both of these machines were found to yield reformed rail ends whichrequired considerable machining before said ends could be brought intoline with the unbattered tread of the rail. It is the principal objectof our invention, therefore,

to provide a method of reforming the battered ends of rails which willpermit the said ends to be raised quickly to such point that they willbe in the same plane with the unbattered tread portions of the railwithout necessitating a substantial amount of grinding or othermachining.

In the above described methods of raising the battered portions of therail ends, the ball of the rail was heated to plasticity and thenpressure was applied to opposite sides or" the ball to raise the tread.It was found, however, that this resulted in indenting both the gaugeside and the outside surface of the railhead, This was due to the factthat even though the fixed lateral die extended beyond the heatedportions of the rail into engagement with, thecold, unheated portions,nevertheless, due to the resiliency of the rail, pressure on the outsideof the railhead for the purpose of raising the tread caused the gaugeside to be indented also. Since any indentation of the gauge; side isundesirable, in that it will set up lateral motion of the train runningover the track, we have devised a method and apparatus for accomplishingthe raising of the tread without appreciably indenting the gauge side ofthe rail.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent inthe following detailed description thereof.

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a graph illustrating the theory of the invention.

Fig, 2 is a perspective of a rail end showing in exaggerated form theaction of the rail end when the ball of the rail is heated.

Fig. 3 is an end view of a rail end showing in diagrammatic form theapplication of the dies to the rail head.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 and showing the modified principleand apparatus for raising the tread without indenting the gauge side ofthe rail.

Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a form of die.

The principle of this invention can best be understood by reference tothe graph of Fig. l and the perspective view of Fig. 2. The horizontalline I!) represents the unbattered tread surface of the rail. The line Hrepresents the battered end before heating or reforming. The line I 2represents the position which the said end assumes when heatedpreparatory to applying pressure to the railhead to raise the tread. Thereason for this is shown in Fig. 2. It will be understood that in railend reforming, only the ball or headof the rail is heated, and when theball or head H of the rail is heated and the heat is applied largelyfrom the top, the web W and the base B remain cold. The heated headexpands in every direction including the direction longitudinal of theaxis of the rail and so assumes the dotted line position, which is anexaggeration for the purposes of illustration. It is thus that we obtainthe position l2 shown in exaggerated form in Fig, 1. Heretofore at thispoint, the top die was applied which extended across the unbatteredportions of the rail treads in the plane i0, and then pressure wasapplied to the sides of the railhead to bring the tread into coincidencewith the plane I0. Upon cooling, however, the rail end proceeded to moveupwardly above the plane [6 a distance ab equal to the distance whichthe rail had moved downwardly during the heating operation. The railtherefore assumed the dotted line position indicated at I5 and requiredconsiderable grinding and machining to bring it down to the tread plane[0.

In order to remedy this condition and to avoid the necessity formachining after the tread of the battered end has been raised, weprovide a die which instead of extending in the plane In of theunbattered portions of the rails, takes the form shown at It whichconsists of a member extending above the battered rail end i2, whenheated, a distance bd, equal to the distance w-c, which is the actualbatter. Pressure is applied to the sides of the rail to raise thesurface l2 to the plane IE5 and thereafter, upon cooling, the rail endrises a distance ab which equals the distance cd, and therefore the raillies in the plane id of the unbattered portions of the rails. If bothrail ends are reformed at the same time, the die will have the shapeshown in Fig. 5.

In certain cases, depending upon the method of application of heat tothe'railhead, it has been found that because of the extension of therailhead longitudinally, there is set up a stress within the web W whichresults in :a permanent .enlargement of the fishing height, that is, theheight between the under side of the head and the top surface of thebase, which remains even after the rail is cold. The result of this isthat the rail end :rises permanently a distance in excess of thedistance a--b= which it turned downwardly during the heating. Therefore,in determining which die to .use, a die having a surface which extendsdownwardly more steeply than surface 16 would be used. In other words,the distance of the die above the heated rail end would be less than thedistance -b-d to allow not merely for the rise of the rail LI -b61116 tocooling, but also to a further rise dueto the stress set up in the web Was just stated.

Because of the action described in the .preceding paragraph wherein thefishing height is increased by the heatlngprocess, it may be desirableto utilize means for applying pressure to the sides of the railheadwhich will depress the metal on the under side of the railhead, thusdecreasing the fishing distance to cause the angle bars to fit. For thispurpose the pressure element having the shape shown in Fig. 3 maybeemployed, wherein two end portions 28, 2| apply the pressure, causingmetal to be raised at the top and at the bottom of the railhead. Asdescribed in the said patents to Miller and Drake, a fixed die engagesthe other side .of the railhead and extends a distance sufficient toengage the cold portions of the rail.

When a pressure element such as 25 applies pressure at one side of therailhead, it has been found that indentation of the rail occurs on bothsidesof the railhead, even though the gauge'side operates against a die38 which extends far enough along each rail to engage the cold por tionsof the rails. Thisis due to the fact that the rail is resilient and thehead bends against the die. This results in indentation of-the gaugeside of the railhead which, as stated in the introduc tion, isundesirable. For obtaining indentation of therailhead only n the outsidesurface thereof, and not on the gaugesurface, we provide the followingmethod and means. We apply heat through the top of the rail so that theheat'distribution is as shown graphically by the lines in Fig. 4. Itwill be seen that the'heat distributes itself in such manner that arelatively cold-corneriit is obtained on the lower. edge. We thenprovide a die it! extending along the rails and having a shoulder 4|adapted to fitthe cold corner 36 of the rail .as well asextendingupwardly along the gauge surface of the head.

Pressure is applied by a pressure member 42 to the outside of therailhead near the upper end thereof, that is, near the highly heatedportion and therefore the most plastic portion. This will cause thetread of the rail to rise, but since the railhead has a cold portion 36resting against the die 40, there will be no tendency for the gauge sideto be indented since the cold edge 36 will resist the pressure whichordinarily would cause indentation on the gauge side.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, we have hereindescribed the principle and operation of our invention, together withthe apparatus which we now conisder to represent the best embodimentthereof, but we desire to 'have'it understood that the apparaus shown isonly illustrative and that the invention can be carried .out by otherequivalent means. Also, while it is designed to use the various featuresand elements in the combination and relations described, some of thesemay be altered and others omitted without interfering with the moregeneral results outlined, and the invention extends to such use.

Having described our inyention, what we claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

l. The method of reforming battered rail ends which consists in heatingonly the heads of said ends to plasticity, said heating causing thebattered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of theunbattered tread, after said heating positioning a die above the railends and spaced therefrom an amount equal to the original batter, andapplying pressure to the sides of the railhead to raise the same to saiddie.

2. The method of reforming battered rail ends which consists in heatingonly the heads of said ends to plasticity, said heating causing thebattered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of theunbattered tread, said heating also causing permanent increase of thedistance between the head and the base to .a predetermined degree, aftersaidheating positioning a die above the rail ends and spaced therefroman amount equal to the original batter less the permanent increase indistance of the head with respect to .the base caused by said heating,and applying pressure to the sides of the railhead to raise the same tosaid die.

3. The method of reforming battered rail ends .which consists in heatingonly the heads of said ends to plasticity, said heating causing thebattered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of theunbattered tread, after said heating positioning a die above the railends and spaced therefrom an amount equal to the original batter, andapplying pressure to the top and bottom portions of the sides of therailhead to raise the sameto said die.

4. The method of reforming battered rail ends which consists in heatingonly the heads of said ends 'to plasticity, said heating causing thebattered tread to be lowered vertically away from the plane of theunbattered tread, after said heating positioning a die above the railends an amount equal to the distance of the heated rail ends below theunbattered'tread less the amount :which said ends will rise due tocooling, and

applying pressure to the sides of the railhead to raisethe same to saiddie.

GEORGE LESTER JONES.

CHARLES B. ROEDE.

